County given £2.5m to repair potholes

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Funding to help tackle the county’s pothole problem should make “a huge difference” to Crawley’s drivers and cyclists.

This was the message from the town’s MP Henry Smith as he welcomed a £2.5million payout from the government to West Sussex County Council.

The money was provided by the Department of Transport as part of a £168million investment to help authorities deal potholes.

A spokesman for the county council said it anticipated between 20,000 and 30,000 extra potholes would be repaired by April 2015 thanks to the grant.

Mr Smith said: “The £2.5million extra funding from the Government should make a real difference in Crawley to the huge number of drivers and cyclists who are fed up with having to continually battle against dangerous potholes, giving them safer and smoother journeys.

“This is especially valuable after the severe weather conditions our town has endured over the winter months which cause terrible damage to a lot of our roads.”

The council spokesman said some 2,821 potholes had been filled in Crawley since January 1 – around 10 per cent of the county wide total.

But she was unable to say how many potholes had had to be repaired more than once.

She added: “The cost of pothole repairs carried out in Crawley so far is around £141,000 and our programme of repair is ongoing.”

When asked how much of the £2.5million would be spent in Crawley, she added: “This latest funding will be spent on repairing even more potholes but the funding will be allocated under our current strict criteria.

“We also have to bear in mind that we don’t know what the weather will be like this winter which could also have an impact on the condition of roads across the county so it is impossible to say where the money will be spent, only to say that it will all be spent on pothole repairs and fixing roads.

“WSCC has also allocated more than £4million on resurfacing roads in Crawley as part of our ongoing roads maintenance programme.”